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Thursday, June 30, 2011

I remember when Air Mail was the only option for sending mail quickly. Today, we communicate with a few keystrokes and the push of a button. Digital communication, such as email, instant messaging and texting allow us to stay connected and get things done quickly. But do communication devices help or hinder our business relationships?

Today's business landscape requires us to communicate with team members and business partners who are spread across town, the country, or around the world, raising new challenges for maintaining healthy, productive relationships.

Here are four simple email practices to keep virtual relationships focused and productive:

1. Be Concise. Do not make the message longer than it needs to be. Keep to the 1-minute rule. If your reader can't get through your message in 60 seconds, you are likely to lose his or her attention.

2. Deliver Quality. Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation; errors will discredit you in a heartbeat.

3. Use Structure. Since reading from a screen (and especially a tiny device) is more difficult than reading from paper, structure is very important. Use succinct sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Be Emotionally Clear. Email does not convey emotions as well as face-to-face or telephone interactions. Are you serious, kidding, frustrated, or euphoric? Always re-read your email before hitting the "send" button to make sure it represents your tone.

Need to capture someone's attention immediately? Send a text message. It commands attention and produces results. Texting is the only way I get the attention of my teenagers these days - imagine the possibilities in business!

Keep it simple to be successful.

Now its time for you to join the conversation - Share your ideas, suggestion and thoughts on what the successful project manager looks like on our LIVE discussion on LinkedIn.

Contributor: Lisa DiTullio (Lisa DiTullio & Associates)

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For a glimpse at some of the content covered in the presentation, check out this video Blueprint Software Systems uploaded to youtube previewing one of their products.

You can also read a great blog post from Tony Higgins here. In this post he addresses some of the same topics that were covered in the webinar. For example, moving beyond text documents to describe your requirements through images or models. A key takeaway from both the webinar and this post can be found in the following quote:

"using diagrams tends to be far more expressive than using text-only, helping people expose errors in the requirements early and improve communication."

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This year's theme pays particular attention to accelerating core leadership competencies. In the wake of all revolutionary change - there's a clear need to elevate the discipline from manager to definitive leader. That's exactly what the event is built to do.

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The Content Has Been Organized to Help You Achieve More:• From Project Manager to Project Leader• Mastering the BA Role• The New Era of Social Communication, Leadership & Collaboration• Tools, Techniques & Trends• Advancing Your PMO • Adopting & Implementing Agile Practices• Being an Evangelist for Portfolio Management• Enterprise Business Analysis - Moving from Tactical to Strategic• The Risk of Ignoring Culture in ProjectsAnd don't miss pre-conference activities, workshops and summits, including a newly expanded all-day Agile Summit with breakout options for all maturity levels, the Advanced PMO Summit and all-day topic intensive workshops for the BA & PM.

Monday, June 6, 2011

In our most recent issue of the ProjectNews newsletter, we explored New York City's CityTime Project. The original goal for the NYC CityTime project was to streamline the timekeeping system for public employees, making the government accountable for its employees and prevent employees from getting paid for time not spent working.

The project was estimated to cost the city $68 million and be completed within 5 years, however the project has now cost over $740 million.

Meanwhile, this article in the Wall Street Journal acknowledges that "To date, 163,388 employees in more than 60 agencies are now on the electronic payroll system," progress that some are seeing as a victory for the beleaguered project.

In that same article Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith "said the administration 'learned some valuable lessons' and plans in the comings weeks to release a report that details how the city will better manage these types of IT projects."

While we wait to see the results of that report, share your own experiences and ideas. Have you ever worked on a project that ran far over budget and time estimates? What lessons were learned in the process?View ProjectNews and other industry resources here.